Reminiscing About The John Blake Error
I'm happy for Nebraska that they're excited about their new football coach Bill Callahan (but why?) and his assistants. But this is stupid:
First of all, John Blake was not a great recruiter. He was a good recruiter, but anyone with a pulse ought to be a good recruiter at a football school like Oklahoma (or Texas). The talent Bob Stoops is recruiting to Oklahoma now (and for the last few years) is far superior to any class John Blake ever brought in, and the annual recruiting rankings put out by various services show that to be true.Somewhere between the chocolate pies and the nighttime chats about God and family and how his mama loved him so much she'd cook dinner no matter what time he got home, John Blake landed another one.
Sultan of schmooze. Lord of the living room. Blake had his critics, like any coach with a 4-8 record would, but man, could he recruit.
He sat down with Rocky Calmus in 1997, locked eyes with the strapping young linebacker from Jenks, Okla., and said something so crazy that half the state of Oklahoma would've wondered what was in the pie.
You will win a championship at Oklahoma.
Calmus was in. Blake was on, yet still hopelessly destined for No. 20.
For all his recruiting genius, this is where you will find John Blake on the list of career records for the 21 head coaches in Sooner history. Had it not been for John Harts coaching just one game in 1895, going 0-1 while teaching a class in elocution, Blake would've been listed as the least-successful coach in Oklahoma football history. No. 21.
But did they know about his promise to Rocky? How Blake sat in his own living room, three years later, watching the Sooners win the 2000 national championship with 18 of his recruits in the starting lineup?
"I just always wonder," Blake said, "what would've happened if I had a chance to finish what I started."
Blake was sitting in his office last week, easing into his new job at Nebraska, when somebody asked if he deserves another shot at a head coaching job.
He quickly changed the subject.
"I take nothing for granted," he said. "I am going to give every inch of effort and energy to do my part to turn this program into a national championship contender."
When Blake was hired as Nebraska's defensive line coach in January, it was all the buzz in Oklahoma.
Radio jocks chuckled and said good riddance to the man who changed offenses three times in 1998, his last season at OU. Internet junkies argued whether Blake fell into that ballyhooed recruiting class, which produced the likes of Calmus, Roy Williams and Andre Woolfolk.
Blake says he's moved on. He yearns for stability at Nebraska, a place he can plant himself for a few years.
He knows coaching isn't conducive to stability.
He was a 34-year-old assistant with the Dallas Cowboys when Oklahoma offered him the head coaching job in 1996. Blake hadn't even been a coordinator before, but OU had just rid itself of Howard Schnellenberger and his 5-5-1 season, and it was time to get back to the Sooner family.
Blake was an alum, a nose tackle under Barry Switzer in the early 1980s. Blake was honest, a look-you-in-the-eyes kind of guy who reminded Sooner fans of Switzer.
Blake went 12-22 in three seasons.
On Nov. 22, 1998, the Oklahoma Board of Regents met to decide Blake's fate. The Sooners went 5-6 in '98 and were three points from finishing 7-4. Blake thought the team was turning the corner. He couldn't wait for '99.
On statewide television, the regents voted 4-2 to fire Blake.
Second, Oklahoma was pretty close to being 2-9 in 1998, beating TCU by one point, Iowa State(!) by three, and Texas Tech by three. And thankfully, Nebraska wasn't on the schedule in 1998, so there was no repeat of the 71-23 loss in 1996 or the 69-7 loss in 1997. The team looked just as inept as it ever had under John Blake in 1998. For the dumb@ss to wonder "what might have happened" if he had been around in 1999 is just stupid. They would have sucked, just like they did through his 12-22 tenure. The big tub of goo might have had reason for optimism, but trust me -- there was no optimism in the Sooner Nation at that time.
I have no particular resentment towards Big John. He's a nice enough guy, I suppose, and not all of the problems at Oklahoma were his fault. But he was a terrible head coach and set that program back immensely. That Nebraska wants to build him into some sort of recruiting savior shows just how far that program has fallen, and how delusionally desperate they've become.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/08/04 22:56 | Big 12 Football | Technorati
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